The Urbem (Completed)

Chapter Five: Rumors

(Lyra)

'Lyra, I think they're killing each other back there,' Dolosus commented dryly as one of the men screamed again. I moaned; these men were really starting to annoy me. It was sick how subordinate they were; even after being free from their handcuffs and, technically they were outside the range of the city and enslavement, they still said nothing, following me like a duckling follows its mother. One of them was in obvious discomfort, not really complaining, but making a lot of aggrieved noises.

"Are you alright?" I asked over my shoulder, concerned for the wellbeing of the older man who was lagging at the back of the group and randomly wailing in pain. He'd cried out at least seven times.

"Probably not, Miss," another man muttered timidly.

"He broke his leg last week and they've been forcing him to work on it." I was going to make a comment about their cruelty but I bit my tongue instead, realizing that it would do no good.

"Well, I can fix that," I replied instead, walking over to the injured man and grabbing his arm in a way as to not hurt him. He flinched away from my touch instinctively, ill-adapted to being touched by women in any way, let alone with kindness. It was alien to him. I ignored his discomfort, throwing his arm over my shoulder.

'Lyra...' Dolosus complained, annoyed that his place of honor had been taken by any other creature, let alone a man who I'd never even seen before.

"Are you getting jealous, Dolosus?" I asked him, incredulous.

'Just disgusted,' he admitted without shame, landing on my head heavily. 'You're the only human I can stand to be around, and I promise you that I will not touch you again until you've had a shower.' "Excuse me?" He didn't seem remorseful. '

You can hear me just fine.'

"And you can fly just fine!" I snapped at him, chasing him off my head with a swat from my hand. He deliberately blocked his mind from mine to show me he was upset, but I ignored it; he'd get over it soon enough, and, to be perfectly honestly, the privacy was nice to have for once. With the bird hovering behind my head, I turned to the man again. "Lean on me," I said gently. "I'll help you walk." Our progress was slow and I was getting bored, so I tried to engage in conversation with the men.

"What are your names?" Each of them listed a number:

"95-24."

"77-84." "

109-82."

"62-82." The laborers were owned by the government, so, unlike the privately owned slaves, they had longer identification numbers rather than shorter "name" numbers. I shook my head at them.

"No, those aren't your names. Once we get back to camp, you'll either be given human names or choose your own, but erase those numbers from your memories. We aren't known by numbers among the Insurgo."

"We've heard so much about the Insurgo," one of the men replied in a hushed voice, "and some encouraging rumors have been whispered about among various parts of the city."

"Like what?" I replied.

"Like how the Queen is getting paranoid about the slaves slowly vanishing and how 114-60 escaped a couple of years ago, before all this started happening. She's getting very fearful of the Insurgo." I couldn't help grinning; it was wonderful news that the mighty Queen of the Uxor was getting afraid of a small group of "rejects". Another of the men, encouraged by his friend's boldness, stepped forward. "

Why is this happening all of a sudden?" he asked. "Why now, when there have been exiles for as long as Uxor has existed?"

I looked at him with a critical stare. "Because someone has finally been brave enough to stand up to them."